


Blink

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Car Accidents, Does Not Have A Bad Ending, Gen, High School, Hospitals, Idk What You Guys Consider A Good Ending, Major Character Injury, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Therapy, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, but it's not bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 13:51:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16975791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: It happens in a blink.Gakushuu Asano gets hit by a car.(He doesn't die, and this fic is Karma-centric because Gakushuu is too busy being in a coma.)





	Blink

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! It's me again! How is life treating everyone? 
> 
> Some Warnings: Non graphic depictions of car accidents, but many references/mentions of PTSD and survivor's guilt and general Bad Emotions and dubious mental states. If you are uncomfortable with any of these topics, then don't read further!

It happens in a blink.

\--

It happens in a blink of an eye and a breath of a second, and Karma’s fallen back in shock and wide-eyed and breathing hard with blood pounding in his ears, thoughts running wildly whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck-

-ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum-

There’s a high pitched shriek, Karma breaks from his spell and clambers to his feet, scraping his palms on the road, and he rushes to Asano-

The girl he pushed aside is still shrieking, crying, hands pressed over her ears. Her knees are scraped and she’s sprawled on the roadside and no one is helping her up-

-no one is doing anything, they’re all just watching-

“CALL THE FUCKING HOSPITAL,” Karma screams, voice cracking, “GET A FIRST AID KIT, AMBULANCE, ANYTHING-”

It’s pure instinct Karma’s still functioning, cradling Asano’s head on his lap and holding his blood in his hands, chanting “stay with me stay with me stay with me-” like it’s some mantra, over and over and over and over-

He doesn’t remember the ride to the hospital, he doesn’t tell the paramedics that the blood on his body is not his, he remembers sirens and the shaking of the ambulance and the sound of Asano’s body hitting the asphalt like a rag doll-

\--

The girl’s name is Miyu Hitora. She’s a first year student in Kunugigaoka High, short with brown hair in two ponytails and a penchant for singing. Karma meets her in the waiting room of the hospital when he’s let out of Accident and Emergency with bandages on his hands and a prescription for an infection salve. She’s crying, hugged by who Karma assumes to be her mother.

“Traffic crossing was green,” she blubbers between tears, to the police officer sitting patiently across her, “car came speeding out of nowhere, Asano ran forward and pushed me-”

Karma still feels blood in his hands, on his lap. He runs to the bathroom and locks himself inside and throws up, and there’s banging on the door outside and an indistinct yelling and-.

\--

The man’s name is Kenji Hayao. He is a jilted accountant recently divorced, intoxicated with 3 bottles found in his car. He is admitted to the hospital with a minor concussion, escorted to the entrance by a police officer, and then again when Gakuhou Asano breaks his jaw in three places.  

Hayao gets charged, 13 years in prison.

\--

Nagisa visits Karma two days after court, and they talk it out. Karma sees Asano’s bloodied face when he closes his eyes and feels sticky blood in his hands instead of running water in the shower, and buries his face into Nagisa’s arms and tries not to cry.

\--

Asano gets admitted into Intensive Care. He has a cracked skull and broken ribs and broken bones here and there. Karma visits him one week after his second surgery, running his hands up and down his arms and shivering. 

Ren Sakakibara and Gakuhou Asano are there, and they’re all looking at Asano through a window. He’s small and frail.

“Thank you,” Asano says to him, softly.

Karma bites his lip. “I didn’t do anything,” he whispers back. He’s still cold and shivering and slowly scratching his arms.

“You helped,” Asano says firmly, “thank you.”

Sakakibara smiles at him, if only slightly.

\--

Karma wears gloves. He wears gloves and he still feels warm liquid running down his arms, and rips off his gloves and throws up in Nagisa’s bathtub, then runs it off with the showerhead in shame.

He doesn’t want to go to his house and Nagisa’s mother looks at him with an expression akin to pity but he doesn’t need pity. Karma’s fine, he’s fine, he didn’t get hit by a car trying to save someone like some stupid idiot and he’s fine even if the ringing in his head sounds like screaming and the screeching of tyres and the sound of a body hitting asphalt-

He throws up again, and there’s knocking on the bathroom door, and Nagisa’s voice, asking, “Karma? You alright in there?”

“Fine,” Karma croaks out, and turns up the water pressure. He shouldn’t even be crying, he’s not the one that got hit by the fucking car. He’s a goddamn assassin, for christ’s sake.

\--

Karma gets a counselor at Kunugigaoka which he thinks is pretty unnecessary, and he’s fine. She throws around words and phrases like flashbacks and post-traumatic-stress-disorder and survivor’s guilt, but Karma’s not paying attention. He’s not guilty, whatever that means, and what kind of trauma could he have gone through, anyways? Sitting there on his ass on the road and watching a car hit Asano Gakushuu, and sending him flying back 10 feet.

\--

They’re seniors, all of them, in their final year in Kunugigaoka High. Next year they would be going to a college of their choice, and Karma would certainly get into any one he applies for, having grappled with top of their high school every exam with Asano. 

Karma sits at the back of class and 3-A watches him warily like they’re afraid he’s going to snap, and he catches Sakakibara’s eye and runs his hands up and down his arms and tugs his jacket tighter around him. 

There’s an empty seat in the middle of class that is in Karma’s line of sight, and he can aim a rubber band or a paper airplane in that trajectory pretty well. There are flowers and notes and cards on it, which is pretty stupid, Karma thinks hysterically, not like Asano can come to school to recieve them anyways, kind of looks like his table during Valentine’s every year, what a heartbreaker. 

The Virtuosos approach him during Lunch and Sakakibara hesitantly invites him to go to the hospital after school with them. 

Karma declines. He locks himself in his room and buries himself in his sheets and tries to fall asleep without hearing sirens or screams or tyres screeching or-

\--

Asano’s been transferred out to a normal ward, about one month later. He’s still in a private ward and still asleep, and the minor cuts and scrapes on his face have mostly healed over, even if Karma still sees red and flesh hair thick and wet with blood- 

Gakuhou Asano is there, typing quietly on his laptop by his son’s bedside, when Karma walks in. He relaxes and greets Karma with a nod, and Karma curls up next to the bed and pulls out a packet of notes.

It’s kind of weird, and even more awkward when Gakuhou Asano seated in the room. Karma flips open a booklet. “I got this from Toru,” Karma says softly, “for math. You lent it to him. You filled it up till chapter 4. We’re finished 5, and I wrote in the rest for you, if you want it.”

Asano’s typing slows, but he continues to be engrossed in his work. Karma appreciates it.

“Sorry my handwriting’s shitty,” he continues softly, “Mr Akimitsu is pretty slow and we’re still at Chapter 7 for Science, you’ve done up till 9 but I’ve checked it and it seems right.”

Karma hesitates, then, “mid-years are coming soon, I guess I’ll take first this time, but you better be there to give me a challenge for finals, okay?”

Asano stops typing. Karma grabs his bag and bolts from the room. He runs past the Virtuosos and down the stairs and back home, and then collapses on the floor and cries.

\--

“I don’t want him to die,” Karma says softly.

“I know,” Nagisa kisses his forehead gently and strokes his hair.

“I was pretty mean to him,” Karma shudders, “we fought a lot. We weren’t friends but I don’t want him to die.”

“It’s not your fault,” Nagisa says firmly, “Asano saved a life.”

“I don’t want it to be that girl, either,” Karma tells him quietly, “it shouldn’t have been anyone.”

“Yes,” Nagisa says.

“He was still awake, when I was there,” Karma says, gaze low and voice distant, “his eyes were open and he was blinking but I don’t think he saw me. Do you think he heard me?”

“Maybe,” Nagisa says softly, “I think he would’ve been glad you were there, rivals or no. It must be scary for someone to slowly slip away alone.”

\--

Karma does get first for mid year examinations but it’s a bitter, hollow win. There’s one less number on the score sheet and getting praised by the teacher feels a little like ashes. 

There’s red ink on his paper and someone spills water and then Karma’s slamming the toilet door closed and on his knees and retching out the lunch he didn’t eat, and there’s someone asking if he’s okay on the other side.

Karma’s not the one that got hit by a fucking car but his brain sure feels like he did.

\--

Karma goes for counselling every week, even if he feels empty about it. He gets complimented for not letting the “incident” get to his studies but that’s genuinely the most disrespectful thing he’s heard, dismissing Asano’s accident where he saved a fucking life into an “incident” that no one even mentions anymore, but he bites his tongue. 

Hitora approaches him shyly after school when he’s squatting by the entrance and watching ants battle over a grain of sugar. She has a guitar with her and plays a beautiful rendition of Fight Song sitting by Asano’s hospital bedside, and her voice is smooth and Karma’s own is raw and grainy, and they sing together anyways.

\--

Asano’s pretty selfish, Karma thinks angrily, falling asleep like that and expecting everyone around him to pick up the slack. Student Council’s a mess and Karma watches them conduct meetings with lacklustre smiles and minimum enthusiasm, even Sakakibara who tried to lead ends up a sad-sack halfway through. 

Karma’s stuck in meetings and tutoring lessons and holding study sessions that is normally what Asano does that Karna feels bad cancelling when he was just as well qualified to teach. 

\--

Asano is looking smaller and frailer than Karma has ever seen him, IV drip not doing him any favors. He’s practically lost all his muscle mass.

The doctor says something to Gakuhou Asano about intensive physical therapy and about never playing basketball again.

Karma bites his lip, hard.

\--

The basketball team plays a match and wins, barely. Karma stays to watch after school and tucks his feet under the bleachers, and stays there pretty long after until it gets dark out and the security guard gently ushers him away.

\--

“I think we might have been friends,” Karma says, “I don’t know, maybe not. We never did interact much in school. Stupid I’m thinking about it now.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Kayano says, “anything can happen in a short time. Maybe you two could have been great friends.”

“You could still be friends,” Nagisa says, “once he wakes up. You have a bit of the year left, right?”

“Mhm,” Karma hums.

\--

Karma skips finals.

It’s stupid and he regrets it a little, but he’s sitting at his seat waiting for the paper to be distributed, and the seat in his line of sight is painfully empty, then abruptly raises his hand and asks to go to Mikasa-sensei. The teachers have strict orders to let him or Hitora leave for the counselor's room whenever they need.

Mikasa-sensei doesn’t say anything about finals or Asano. She makes him tea and they play chess for a few quiet hours until Karma’s allowed to leave school without a note, then he immediately goes to the hospital.

\--

Winter Break comes. 

Karma wears gloves and he buys a die that he fiddles with, as some abstract metaphor for fate or luck or whatever, something to keep his hands busy. He spends his birthday at Nagisa’s house when both his parents are in, and even Kayano is invited. They don’t talk about Asano and car accidents and there’s no alcohol on the table, and they talk and watch movies and sleep in the living room until the next morning.

\--

Karma spends New Years at the hospital. 

Gakuhou Asano is there, and Karma thinks he hasn’t seen him away from the hospital in very long, but his clothes changes so he probably isn’t staying indefinitely. The Virtuosos are there, chatting quietly among themselves. They eventually start playing cards, and even Asano joins in, randomly swapping players in and out and making weird 6-player versions of Bridge. 

There’s a little stack of presents by Asano’s bedside and Karma’s is one of them, a dreamcatcher he found in a kitschy handicraft store with a woman dressed like a gypsy and hand-weaving them. He has a matching one in his own bedroom.

He’s been sleeping a lot more quietly and his dreams have settled, and he dones't know if the dreamcatcher works and it's a little silly to think it does, but there's something light and innocent about it that makes Karma want to hope. Asano must be dreaming, too, being the one who actually got hit by the fucking car. Karma hopes his gift works well.

\--

Asano wakes up on the first week of school. 

Sakakibara bounds up to him, tears running down his face and he says, “hospital, now,” but he’s beaming and Karma’s heart swells.

Gakuhou Asano is stroking his son’s hair and cradling him when they get there, and Gakushuu Asano looks small and frail and tiny. 

“Hi,” Asano says, voice weird and hoarse with disuse, and the Virtuosos crowd him and suddenly Karma feels awkward standing in the doorway.

Then Asano says, “Akabane.”

“He was there when you got hit,” his father says gently, “and he came to visit, after.”

“I know,” Asano says, eyes wide and staring straight into Karma's, “I remember. I heard him.”

\--

“I didn’t want to die alone,” Asano says, abruptly, when he and Karma are watching the sun set by the hospital window when Gakuhou bundled the Virtuosos out for something or other.

“You weren’t going to die,” Karma says quietly.

“I didn’t know that, and I was scared,” Asano admits, “I couldn’t see or feel anything at first, all I heard was my own heart beating and screaming,” he makes an aborted gesture with his hands, “but then I heard your voice. Thought that if I was going to die at least I’d die with someone with me.”

“Even if it was me?” Karma says.

“I didn’t know it was you,” Asano laughs a little, “I was too busy dying to register who it was.”

“Don’t say dying,” Karma says firmly. 

Asano smiles at him.

\--

More people start to visit.

Hitora cries and Asano hugs her, and and she sobs apologies and thanks and Asano says that she should never have to apologize for something like this and it wouldn’t have been her fault if he died, because it was his choice he made to push her.

Even Isogai visits, and Katoka, as some sort of goodwill of faith or something from the middle school class representatives.

\--

When Karma next visits Asano can stand up for a short period of time but just barely, and he’s embarrassed about it. 

“Can’t even walk to the fucking bathroom,” Asano hisses shamefully.

“I threw up every day after your accident,” Karma says quietly, “sometimes several times a day. Kept seeing you hit the ground or feeling your blood in my hands.”

\--

Kunugigaoka offers Karma a second chance to take his finals. The call comes when Asano is quietly flipping through notes that Karma wrote and humming to himself. Karma watches him for a bit, and declines, though he’s not sure why. 

He doesn’t know if he’ll get into college without a finals grade, even though he’d been taking top or runner-up for every examination before that. He might have to re-take his last year of high school.

Karma figures that won’t be so bad. Asano will be there, after all.

\--

Nagisa’s not happy with his decision. Karma has all but moved into his house and his mother doesn’t mind but Karma feels a little bad, because his house is way bigger. 

Nagisa chides him a little as they’re cuddled up, and then they meet Nakamura and Kayano for lunch downtown.

“Well I think you’ll get into college anyways,” Nakamura says, “if you don’t, just skip school for an entire year and take finals when everyone else does next year.”

“No!” Nagisa scolds. Kayano slaps her lightly.

\--

“Is it weird if I say I like your voice?” Asano says abruptly one day.

“Kind of, yeah,” Karma agrees.

“It was. Reassuring,” Asano mumbles, blushing. They’re sitting at a bench down the hall from his ward that he managed to walk to. “Last thing I heard before I went under. Felt less alone.” 

Then, “you were singing, right?”

“With Hitora,” Karma tells him, “she plays the guitar. Going to be a recording artist one day.”

Asano looks down at his fingers.

\--

“Why the hell do you keep coming here?” Asano asks.

“You don’t like me here?” Karma looks over.

“No,” Asano says, “it’s nice. You’re okay.”

“House is big and quiet,” Karma tells him, “you’re annoying, but you’re okay too.”

\--

When Asano gets a cut on his finger and blood wells up, Karma pukes in the bathroom. Asano’s looking at him, horrified, when he gets out.

“I’m so sorry,” Asano says softly.

“It’s not your fault,” Karma mumbles, “PTSD, or whatever.”

“They got you a counselor?” Asano asks.

“Yeah, and Hitora,” Karma says.

“I have one, too,” Asano admits.

\--

Asano’s hands shake. Karma barely notices it at first, but his hands have taken on a slight unsteady tremble. 

Karma doesn’t bring it up. He digs out his own guitar pick from years ago, punches a hole in it, and then weaves it into Asano’s dreamcatcher by his bed. He doesn’t know why. 

The next time he opens his wallet after the hospital trip he finds that Asano has slipped in his own pick with a hole punched.

Karma ties it into his dreamcatcher. He feels a little silly, he hasn’t played in almost a decade. He doesn’t even have his old guitar anymore. 

\--

Karma graduates with the rest of his cohort, despite his lack of a finals grade. Sakakibara takes Valedictorian. Asano is there for the ceremony in a wheelchair in the stands even though he doesn’t go up on stage. Kunugigaoka offered him a conditional graduation provided he takes the finals and passes once he’s fit to do so, without having to repeat the year. 

Both of them get multiple offers from Kyoto, Tokyo, Tohuko, Osaka, even overseas from Cambridge, Oxford, MIT. Karma gets a call at about 1am from his parents, somewhere in the UK, as congratulations. Gakuhou Asano buys him and the Virtuosos a diabetic amount of ice cream and dessert and they camp in Gakushuu Asano’s ward and tease Sakakibara about his cheesy speech and gets told off a little by a nurse for laughing too loud. 

It’s nice, Karma supposes.

\--

Karma’s not shocked Asano decides to go to the States. He’s a little surprised that he’s taking a gap year, but with everything that happened so far, Karma thinks it makes sense. 

“So you’ll be ruling Japan’s government when I get back?” Asano jokes good-naturedly, sitting at the edge of his hospital bed, leg in a soft cast.

“And you’ll be slowly monopolizing America’s economy, I presume,” Karma says.

“You’re finally going to get the upper hand, for a year,” Asano shrugs, “but I’ll catch up to kick your ass.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Karma promises, grinning.

\--

Karma doesn’t hear from Asano again, but he doesn’t expect to, and he doesn’t reach out, either. They weren’t friends, not really, even though Karma thinks they could have been. 

Three years later Karma reads about poster-boy Gakushuu Asano in MIT’s prospectus, straight As with a Bachelor’s in Business, fast-tracking his way into scholarships and internships. There’s a candid of him with some other students in a field of some sort and he aged pretty well.

Karma barks out a laugh. It’s like Gakushuu Asano’s personal fuck-you to the world, or something, succeeding when the circumstances are against him. The dreamcatcher is still hanging on Karma’s bedroom wall.

\--

Seven years after that and they’re gathered in a fancy hotel and Karma is watching people he barely recognizes flit around and flirt with Masters and paychecks, when someone slides up next to him.

“The total revamp of educational policies,” Asano says, eyes twinkling, “last year. That was you,” he guesses.

“Smart, MBA kid,” Karma smiles, “you’re looking good.”

“I hear being able to walk independently is an attractive trait,” Asano says dryly.

“That’s ableist,” Karma teases, “any recent plans to take over the world, CEO?”

“Maybe just Silicon Valley for now,” Asano sips his glass, “interested in investing, bureaucrat? I hear tech is very lucrative.”

“How long you in Japan for?” Karma asks curiously.

“A bit,” Asano shrugs, “we have an office here. Thinking of expansion.”

Karma cocks his head. “In that case. Coffee?”

“If my personal number gets out,” Asano warns jokingly, “I’m repossessing all your assets.”

“Fight me, millionaire,” Karma snarks.

“I don’t see how that’s an insult,” Asano drawls.

“Fight me, not-valedictorian,” Karma says.

“I was hit by a car,” Asano says, mildly irritated, “what’s your excuse?”

“I didn’t take finals because I have PTSD because you got hit by a car,” Karma counters.

“Well-”

\--

“Oh my god they’re doing it again,” Sakakibara says in horror, “10 whole goddamn years-”

**Author's Note:**

> Hehe so what did ya'll think? Poor Asano I love putting him in Bad Situations. Maybe I'll kill him off, who knows. "no color more beautiful than you" by tanktrilby, guys. A Good Karashuu Fic with a Bad Asano Situation.  
> Give me fic prompts! I have nothing in my head.  
> See you soon!


End file.
